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I recently watched Genisys, and was quite confused actually about what (events) happened in it. First of all, why 2017? How was Kyle able to predict the year of Genisys(Skynet) going online so perfectly?

According to T3, Skynet was activated in 2004, instead of 1997 because of T2's events. But then we see in Genisys nothing happens in 2004 instead new judgement date is in 2017. How did all happen? What part did I miss?

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The events of Genisys changed everything. In essence, the events of T1, T2 and T3 never occurred. The T-800 Arm that caused Skynet to be created in 1997 was only found due to the events of T1.

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The events in T2 stopped that from happening by destroying the Cyberdyne lab where the Arm and research was being conducted, along with Miles Dyson (Main researcher, and father to Danny Dyson, who we see in Genisys).

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The Judgement day in T3 happens because the US Army continues Skynet's creation from what remained of the destroyed Cyberdyne in T2. Additionally, the female Terminator, T-X, infects a partially advanced/reversed engineered computer system with the full Skynet, triggering the apocalypse.

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So everything that happened in T3 relies on the T-800 that was sent back in time to kill teenage Sarah Conner being partially destroyed. It contaminated the time line.

Genisys changed that, when "Pops", sent back to save preteen Sarah, and Sarah destroy the original terminator completely. No arm to be found, no T1, T2, T3 events. As Sarah says "The 1984 John sent you to, it no longer exists".

The 2017 part is more confusing. Since T1, T2, and T3 never happen, due to Pops being sent back, the time traveling Kyle Reese in Genisys, sees two (three? A few?) time lines while in the temporal quantum field. The one he was born in where Judgement day does happen earlier, and a new one where it does not. He remembers an alternative time where his younger self says Genisys is Skynet, and that it was born in 2017. The scene before Sarah and Kyle travel forward in time tried to explain this.

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  • I always thought Skynet sent three terminators, T-800 Model 101(Arnold) in 1984, T-1000 (Robert) in 1995 and T-X (Kristanna) in 2004, all at the SAME TIME i.e., where it knows it will be defeated by Connors soon. If this was not the case then how did it actually send the other two terminators? Because it should get defeated by then as we see in Genisys. Oct 4, 2015 at 15:42
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    @faizan then why not send a T 1000 or T X to 1984? Or send all three there? The point is that each time travel event alters the timeline, there isn't one singular unifying timeline. Again, the key part is the conversation Pops, Kyle and Sarah have before traveling forward in time, involving multiple pasts due to a temporal nexus. This is temporal mechanics, nothing is straight forward.
    – cde
    Oct 4, 2015 at 20:08

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